Food Safety Knowledge and Practices among Women Working in Alexandria University, Egypt.

Abstract

UNLABELLED: Ensuring food safety at the household level is well accepted and an understanding of the status of the food handling knowledge and practices is needed. Food safety knowledge and practices of 270 women working in six faculties and institutions of Alexandria University were assessed using a questionnaire including data on personal characteristics, previous attack of prominent food poisoning, and four parameters of food safety knowledge and practices. The highest percentage of food poisoning cases (46.8%) was belonging to staff members and 39.7% were in the age group <10 years. Half of the cases resulted from eating outside home compared to 16.7% from eating at home. The mean score percentage of the total safety Knowledge of the sample was 67.4 compared to 72.0 for their safety practices. The highest Knowledge score was in personal hygiene (73.8) while the highest practice score was in cooking (77.5). The lowest Knowledge score was in food preparation (59.8) whereas the lowest practice was in purchasing and storage (62.7). The highest mean scores percentages of the total food safety knowledge and its four associated parameters were among staff members with significant differences among different jobs except in food preparation. The highest scores of the total food safety practices and their parameters were among clerks except in practicing safe purchasing and storage where the highest mean score was among staff members (66.5+/- 12.8) with significant differences among jobs except in practicing personal hygiene. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS: The study showed inadequate safety Knowledge and practices among all job categories. The inconsistencies between Knowledge and practices emphasize the need for implementing repeated food safety education programs.